Cartagena beaches: Playa de San Ginés ( La Azohía)

A Blue Flag and Q for Quality beach in La Azohía

The municipality of Cartagena municipality has several series of beaches, and this one falls within an area which lies at the south-westerly tip of this large municipality, La Azohía and Isla Plana.

This area has been popular with Spanish holidaymakers for decades, and still retains a characterful charm which gives it a pleasant, homely family holiday feel, tending to attract those who prefer a welcoming air of community to those who demand mod cons and fashionable amenities.

This stretch of beaches is framed by the bulk of Cabo Tiñoso, and lies at the very end of the bay of Mazarrón, a run of “natural” beaches which stretch for kilometres along the curve of the coast. Visitors often mistakenly believe these beaches belong to Mazarrón, as they are so close to the Puerto de Mazarrón, rather than being the last outpost of Cartagena.

The Playa de San Ginés is the first beach encountered when entering La Azohía and runs along in front of the San Ginés residential area, which consists mainly of individual chalets although the Acuario and Pinar de San Ginés apartments lie at the top of the built-up zone. This is the area of La Azohía with the highest urban density, mainly because this is the best beach in La Azohía and the urban development is more marked at this point.

The beach is a mixture of sand and stone and is listed by the Cartagena authorities as being 800 metres long with an average width of 25 metres, although other sources put the total length at over 2 kilometres, including the rock and shingle strips at the end of the beach.

The sandy part of the beach is well-populated in the summer, particularly at weekends, when parking can be something of a problem. There is a piece of open land opposite the eastern end of the beach where up to a hundred cars can squeeze in, but when this is full cars park in all of the residential streets of San Ginés and bathers walk a couple of hundred metres down to the beach.

The beach itself is ideal for both adult and young bathers. Approximately 50 metres offshore there is a bank of rocks under the water which provides a kind of lagoon: between the rocks and the beach the waves are normally minimal, but further out to sea the water temperature drops noticeably and the current is stronger. Be careful: almost every year over-confident swimmers find themselves caught out by this change and the emergency services have to be called out.

The Playa de San Ginés has been awarded both Q for Quality and Blue Flag awards in recognition of the quality of its services. There is a full lifeguard service at the Playa de San Ginés beach from 11.00 to 20.00 between mid-June and mid-September, and there are generally between two and three beach bars servicing this beach during the peak summer weeks.

In addition, leisure sporting equipment can be hired, there are footwashes, wooden walkways down onto the beach, bins, recycling points, toilets for both able bodied and disabled bathers, disabled parking spaces and an auxiliary medical service during peak months.

Shopping opportunities in La Azohía are limited, but ample: there is a chemist’s in the arcade of commercial premises at the entrance to the village, ten minutes’ walk from the Playa de San Ginés, and a small supermarket ten minutes or so in the other direction towards the village of La Azohía itself. Anyone planning to eat on the beach is advised to bring their own picnic or, in summer, avail themselves of the food on offer at the beach bars.